New Delhi
The Income Tax department is working to improve the “abysmally poor” tax literacy in the country so that the number of tax paying people and entities can be increased leading to enhanced collections, CBDT Chairman JB Mohapatra has said.
He said the direct tax establishment — the government authority that primarily collects personal income tax and corporation tax among others — will do “everything possible” to see that the effective number of taxpayers who can add to the revenue kitty are enhanced. “There are a few things to be done here. One is expanding the tax literacy which is abysmally poor across the country,” he told PTI.
“Banking literacy has gathered steam and people know what is a bank and how to open an account. Banks have invested in expanding the banking knowledge of the people. That thing has not happened in (income) tax and that is on top of our mind,” he said.
The CBDT chief was asked about the steps being taken by the taxman to widen and deepen the tax base in the country given that the department recorded its highest-ever direct tax collections at over Rs 13.63 lakh crore (as on March 16) during the current financial year.
He said the I-T department recently, on the intervention of Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, concluded a fortnightly ‘mulaqat’ event in the far off and remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir where the department met locals and told them about the department and its work.
“This kind of interaction with people in tier-II and tier-III cities, in ‘panchayats’ and blocks has to happen over a sustained period. It can’t happen in a year or so but we have do it over a period of time,” Mohapatra said.
“People’s knowledge about the tax department, what it stands for, how does a taxpayer and a potential taxpayer help in national development and subsequently the taxpayer adds his share to the growth of the economy, all that has to be culturally percolated to the taxpayers or the potential taxpayers and then things will dramatically change in the department,” Mohapatra said.
He added that the department will undertake outreach programmes and take help of various modes of mass communication and multimedia to take the work and idea of the department among the people. Quoting latest data, the CBDT chief said income tax return (ITR) filing numbers are roughly 7 lakh crore of which about 4 lakh crore are from the TDS (tax deducted at source) category.
